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DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

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Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#181

Post by aprdm »

qsort wrote: post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

I don't disagree with you, but google search has gone so downhill that I had stopped using it before they moved to the AI approach, which is actually pretty decent.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#182

Post by aprdm »

tredre3 wrote: post #154
crazygringo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. Not me. I really appreciate having both results simultaneously. I can scan the first couple sentences of the AI response, and if that already has the answer then great. I can expand it to see if there's more. Or, if I see that the AI mode didn't understand my brief search query, I just glance at the search results below. And often times, when I do ne…

> I can scan the first couple sentences of the AI response, and if that already has the answer then great. But how do make the determination that the answer is good and you should stop reading the page? Vibes?

How do you make it without AI ? Are you parsing through millions of pages yourself ?

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#183

Post by blueg3 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #155
SirFatty wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I mean, "AI Mode" is the default result when you Google something" No, it's not. AI mode is something you have to select (in the search window). There is an AI overview provided with your basic search results.

I agree with their assessment that '"AI mode" is the default' - https://ibb.co/Pz9LqKRb . That's what I get, in the UK, logged out of Google, from a search in Firefox omnibar using "Google" as provider. I'm aware that they have other things that can be described as AI modes.

That's AI Overview, just like it says at the top of the box.

AI Mode in that screenshot is the tab to the left of All.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#184

Post by nonethewiser »

dylan604 wrote: post #32
al_borland wrote: post #5

My friends who previously had no interest in technology and never talked about it, are suddenly following tech news closely all because they hate AI being pushed so hard. One was just messaging me this morning about alternatives to Google search and maps. He ended up downloading DuckDuckGo. If Google isn’t carefully they’re going to push people away from their golden goose.

Search is not the golden goose. Ads are. If search was the golden goose, they wouldn't be trying so hard to replace it with AI. Just because Google used to do search as their main point of business does not mean that holds true today. Holding on to the false premise will only add to your confusion about their decisions.

This is just wrong. They are working AI into search so that AI does not cannablize search. Search goes hand-in-hand with ads.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#185

Post by Sleaker »

Legend2440 wrote: post #43
mrweasel wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I truly don't get Google's move. Users aren't adopting their AI at the rate shareholders expect, so they now force the adoption at the cost of search.

According to Google, users are adopting it. They say AI mode is the most popular feature they've ever introduced, and is driving an increase in total search queries. >Just one year after its debut, AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. As people have realized just how much more Search can do for them, they’re searching more than ever before — so m…

Isnt this essentially just slight of hand? Google basically defaults to AI search now doesn't it? So of course it will be 'fastest adopted' it's what is shoved in peoples faces.

If the results are garbage, or people have difficulty with it... Of course number of searches goes up. That doesn't mean the product is better or its not resulting in brand damage.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#187

Post by elorant »

qsort wrote: post #20

I truly don't get Google's move. I'm sure the model is fine, but it's not Google Search, and when I want Search I want Search. If I wanted to ask an AI, why can't I ask the one from my subscription... that I'm already paying for... that's actually good... that can also search the web? I assume it's a play to test the waters for how the ad market is going to work, because as a product I really can't see why I would ev…

What if their move is to make AI search horrible so that OpenAI has no moves left here because trust in the product collapses?

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#188

Post by nonethewiser »

ajdude wrote: post #165
nonethewiser wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I actually like AI mode in Google. My main reason is if I just have a quick question it seems a lot quicker than logging into ChatGPT/Claude as I can just type it in the address bar. This is the exact use-case, and it makes a lot of sense. The hard part for Google is identifying when someone wants search and when someone wants an AI response. It's somewhat identifiable by the input but of course thats extremely mess…

Just do what Kagi does and turn on AI mode only if there's a "?" At the end of the query.

They are already doing something like that though. It's not just a ? mark, but they are getting some signal from the input and classifying it as a search term or AI prompt. Not all inputs have an AI response.

And a "?" at the end is not going to capture a lot of real LLM prompts like "What should I pack for my vaction? Im going to Florida in September."

I mean you could do something like this. But it's really not much different than other manual search codes that are used by more power users like like "", "site:" etc.

They probably have a term for it but their AI response is just another "embedded result" for lack of a better term. Like displaying the local weather directly at the top when you search "weather", etc.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#189

Post by eithed »

alberto467 wrote: post #132
eithed wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why let a cooking website get visitors and ad revenue when they are free to take the content and show it as their own? I think this is a step beyond that - why should people be creating cooking websites when you can ask LLM how to cook given thing, while indeed, serving their own ads. It's the continuation of "we own content other people produce" policy

You can also tell the LLM exactly what you have in the fridge or what allergies you have and get customized recipes. It’s just a better experience, 2026 is rough for a recipe site.

This video tells me otherwise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDQds7VZkfg ( Cold Ones - We Drank AI's Horrible Cocktail Ideas). This is a tongue in cheek response though, as LLMs improved significantly since then.

Re: DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode

#190

Post by qwerpy »

dgan wrote: post #170
qwerpy wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm as anti-Google as anyone out there. I block all their ads, refuse to pay for youtube, go out of my way to avoid their hardware, etc. But I have to admit AI mode is great. It's fast, free, not yet cluttered with ads, and useful. I treat it as a search engine that does a fuzzy search rather than the more literal text match search that we're used to. I recently bought a Bambu 3d printer after Reddit/HN drew my atten…

"Surely the last time after handing out carrots long enough to kill all competition, they switched from carrots to sticks, that sucks; but look? now they started giving out carrots again!! It will be such a sad day when no more carrots"

“Someone’s handing out free carrots but it may be sticks someday so I’m gonna be mad about it today and grow my own carrots. That’ll show ‘em! My neighbor’s roasted carrots sure do smell good though.”
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